Chinese folks love to wear t-shirts with English words, sayings, etc. Sometimes they are written in perfect English. Sometimes they are written in poor English. Sometimes they are spelled correctly, sometimes not, and sometimes the spelling is so far off it's difficult to decipher what on earth they were trying to say. I thought it funny.
Then some of my Chinese students told me that sometimes foreigners (typically the term used to refer to Caucasian Westerners) wore t-shirts with Chinese letters on them that were often wrong and were obvious misspellings. They thought it funny.
Huh...imagine that.
但后来我开始学习汉字 (Translation: But then, I started learning Chinese characters.) And it was HARD! Some of the characters were so close that the smallest error made them either an entirely wrong character / word or completely undecipherable.
And it occurred to me that maybe the Chinese t-shirt designers had as difficult a time learning English letters and words as I had in learning Chinese characters. Here's a small example:
Tame the lions becomes lame the lions if a tiny error is made - the horizontal bar on top of the vertical line of the T is forgotten.
With Chinese characters, a missing (or additional) dash, line or apostrophe-like slash could completely alter the meaning of the character or word.
Without further ado, here are some of the fine messages I saw printed on t-shirts worn by Chinese folks over the course of the past year. Some are funny, some are philosophical, some are cultural. All are interesting; original spellings retained:
- You don't have to be perfect to be amazing.
- Think about it: You can do anything you put your mind too
- Enjoy every moment
- Art is the way of survival. It is the soul of our lives. (I love this one for my artist friends!)
- Same fight...different pursuit
- I am famous. But nobody knows it.
- Live your imagination. We can only become our best selves by believing what we imagine ourselves to be.
- Honesty is the best apple
- Why am I so emotional?
- Basketball is my girlfriend.
- When I was little, I had no idea how important eyebrows would be
- I'll even lend you my cat
- May the bridges I burn light the way, along with its corollary, modeled by one of my favorite students, Echo (Han Yao Yao):
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Here are a few of the thousands of pictures I have taken while we were here. I will try to limit the commentary on this post -- just scroll and enjoy. Many were posted in this blog, but many were not. There's a story behind just about every picture.
Near the end is a special Mt. Everest section!
Speaking of that, the picture below is not Mt. Everest. It is Jade Dragon Snow Mountain near Lijian. It is only 18,000+ feet (Mt. Everest is 29,029 feet).
[Sorry -- the pictures feel a bit like a jumbled mess to me...I am not very good with this blog software, nor do I find it particularly user friendly -- they definitely don't employ WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) on their website]. So the organization is lousy, but the pictures should be worth it!)
Alleyway in Lijian
Picture Bonita took of a monk in the hallways of Jing'an Temple in Shanghai.
I was framed in Shanghai...
Old woman with child on her back in Baishi village.
Mountains along the Li River in Guilin...inspiration for Dr. Seuss Mountains.
Awesome night-time shot of a gorgeous building in Shanghai.
Monks in Jing'an Temple, Shanghai. Being taught by the Master.
DQ and Bonita at television tower in Shanghai.
Second tallest building in the world -- Shanghai Center Tower. Awesome. 2,073' tall.
Bonita with statues in Qianfoshan National Park. Isn't she cute?
DQ with students -- all roommates -- and their roommate sweaters.
Large mural we purchased. Can't wait to get it framed and hung.
DQ and Li Yi Fei (Faye) -- graduate student, my Chinese tutor and friend.
Beautiful rocks in Suzhou.
Peace and harmony in Suzhou.
Gentleman I practiced my Chinese with at Qianfoshan National Park...I think he's laughing with me.
DQ and older gent at QuFu -- birthplace of Confucius.
Cambodian school children returning home after school.
Zhou Xuefei - Tracy -- and Professor Quillen. A favorite.
Young woman lit by the light from her cell phone.
Young lad with traditional Chinese haircut ..... Regal elderly man in Hanoi, Viet Nam.
Sunset across Yar City, an ancient city. Taken by Rebecca Allen, fellow China Teachers Program teacher.
This picture is of the campus where we taught most of our classes at Shandong Normal University (SDNU). The building in the center is Starfleet Academy, aka 图书馆 / tushuguan / library.
Halls of learning -- hall in one of Shandong Normal University's classroom buildings.
DQ and Bonita at Yar City. Taken by a Tresa Wilkins (fellow CTP teacher).
Crane in walkway in Botanical Gardens in Suzhou. The crane symbolizes longevity in China.
Beautiful mural, and reflection of ceiling lights in grand entry hall of the impressive Shandong Provincial Museum.
Students participating in an activity.
Liu Mengchao (Amy) student and friend. A favorite.
Bonita with a man who looked eerily like a Chinese version of her father!
This was the first class I taught in August 2018 (picture of that day in the background), and students at the end of the semester on my last day with them. Cute kids.
Roots overtaking a ruin (and tourists?) in Cambodia.
I don't even drink Coke...but I'd buy a Coke from her. Wouldn't you!? (Icy -- Xu Bing -- a favorite.)
Tibet and Mt. Everest
Bonita and I had the opportunity to go to Tibet and see Mt. Everest. Here are a few pictures from that week we spent on top of the world (or so it seemed),
Mt. Evererest, 29,029 feet, about 13,029 feet above where this picture was taken from.
Mt. Everest from 75 to 100 miles away.
DQ and Bonita under prayer flags; Mt. Everest in the background.
Not Mt. Everest, but a peak overlooking a holy lake in Tibet. When Bonita and I first looked at this picture, it looked fake, as though it had been computer generated. Nope -- it's the real picture.
DQ and a new friend in the Lhasa marketplace
The Dalai Lama's palace (Potala Palace) at night. Lhasa, Tibet
Devout Buddhist worshiper near a temple in Lhasa. The item in his hand is a prayer wheel.
Monks on a mission outside Jokhang Temple, Lhasa, Tibet.
A stone cairn Bonita and I cobbled together, with Mt. Everest in the background
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That's it. It has been a wonderful year of love and warmth, new friendships and improved international relations. Along the way we taught a little English, shared a little culture, and made life-long friends. Our hearts were touched on a continual basis. We saw many of the beauties of China, and of the world. What a wonderful adventure it has been. Thank you for joining us through this blog!
